CIA hired Blackwater as al-Qaida hit men

Aug. 20: Despite having been under investigation for crimes in Iraq, the private security contractor was hired by the Central Intelligence Agency 2004 to locate and assassinate top operatives of al-Qaida. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

Terrorism

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ANN CURRY, anchor:In other news, a secret
CIA
plan has come to
light
that puts the controversial private
security
contractor
Blackwater
back in the news. There are reports now that the
CIA
hired employees of
Blackwater
in
2004
, intending to have them help track down and kill top
al-Qaeda
members. More on this
tonight
from our chief
foreign affairs
correspondent
Andrea Mitchell
.

ANDREA MITCHELL reporting:The firm that use to be called
Blackwater
was already under fire. Five of its guards are
still
awaiting trial on voluntary manslaughter charges for killing Iraqi civilians in
Baghdad
two years ago. A sixth pleaded guilty.
Blackwater
was ordered out of
Iraq
last January. The
company
changed its name to
Xe
, but many of its guards were rehired by another
security
firm and are
still
guarding US officials in
Iraq
and
Afghanistan
, while the renamed
Blackwater
is
still
being paid millions for air operations in
Afghanistan
, and
government
use of its
training camp
in
North Carolina
. Why would the
CIA
outsource a
top secret
operation to what many call a rogue
company
?

Unidentified Man:We really should be focusing on why can't the
US government
put together a
program
to find these
terrorist
kingpins and take them out in a legal way, and that's really the issue.

MITCHELL:Officials say
Blackwater
helped train agents to track
al-Qaeda
in places like
London
and
Paris
outside of war zones, but quickly ran into diplomatic roadblocks.

Mr. DAVID IGNATIUS (Intelligence Expert):The idea that we would give contractors the authority to use
lethal force
abroad in friendly countries where there could be enormous blowback, as the
CIA
likes to say, strikes me as crazy.

MITCHELL:Still
unclear, what role, if any, this man played,
Cofer Black
, in charge of counterterrorism for the
CIA
and then the
State Department
for three years after 9/11. Who hired him when he left? Blackwater. TonightBlackwater
, operating under its new corporate name, did not respond to requests for comment. The
company
and its former CEO are
still
under
federal grand jury
investigation in
North Carolina
for potential crimes in
Iraq
. But today former
CIA directorMichael Hayden
defended the outsourcing.

Mr. MICHAEL HAYDEN:We do not use contractors to carve out something we do -- we want to deflect
responsibility
for. That is simply wrong.

MITCHELL:Still
, critics say the
CIA
was trying to protect its reputation by hiring contractors to do its
dirty
work. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington.